Have you heard of salted duck rice?

Neither did we until we saw some photos of Benson Salted Duck on Facebook.

Most readers will be more familiar with braised duck or roasted duck, so poached duck — duck that is boiled and seasoned with salt — is quite a novel dish.

Benson Salted Duck's star dish is the Salted Duck Rice (S$3.50/S$4.50).

It looks like chicken rice — even the rice is flavoured, like those you get at chicken rice stalls — but it is served with poached duck meat, julienned cucumbers and pickled vegetables.

The meat is tender, juicy, and flavourful (some might find it to be on the salty side — but hey, it's called Salted Duck for a reason).

The duck is poached in water along with pandan, lemongrass, garlic, and ginger. Then it is soaked in salt water. Lastly, it is rubbed with salt and spices.

If you are a big eater, a single serving of salted duck might not be enough. You might want consider jio-ing a few friends along and order half a salted duck to share.

Benson Salted Duck also sells Smoked Duck Rice (S$3.50/S$4.50).

The duck breast isn't smoked in-house; it is procured from an external supplier but the sauce is made by the hawker himself.

It's nice on its own, but personally, it felt rather odd eating smoked duck with chicken rice.

The Pig's Organ Fish Maw Soup (S$5.50) was very robust, with well-cooked pig's stomach and liver, meat balls, and pork slices, as well as soft fish maw and tofu.

The Salted Duck Rice is quite popular.

We visited on a Monday at around 12 noon and there was a long queue, which did not abate throughout the time we spent at the coffeeshop.

Benson Salted Duck

Address: Blk 168 Toa Payoh Lorong 1, #01-1040, Singapore 310168 (map)

Operating hours: 9am to 4pm (Friday to Wednesday); closed on Thursdays

Social media: Facebook

Top images by cherylawmn/Instagram, Joshua Lee.